Nasser Attacks President Kennedy for $25,000,000 Loan to Israel

March 22, 1961

WASHINGTON (Mar. 21)

The United Arab Republic, in a broadcast monitored here today, denounced President Kennedy’s announcement of the new $25,000,000 Export-Import Bank loan to Israel and said the Arab economic warfare against Israel was being intensified. The broadcast also announced confiscation of Israeli cargoes from two British ships at the Port Said entrance to the Suez Canal.

The UAR said that “Israel goods” aboard the British freighters “Chakdara” and “Clan Malcolm” have been confiscated and submitted to a prize court. The Cairo radio added that “Arab ports were also informed of the names of these ships which are to be blacklisted because of their dealings with Israel.”

A Cairo commentator said: “By this action, Israel wanted to feel the pulse of the Arab authorities. If it succeeded, it would begin smuggling goods on a wide scale. Israel resorted to this after it became evident that it was impossible for it to pass through the Arab canal and after it had exhausted all political and military maneuvers to attain its ends.”

Attacking President Kennedy for announcing the recent loan to Israel, the Cairo broadcast said: “To Kennedy, all the world’s problems are of secondary importance, whereas the main problem, to which he gave prominence in his statement is that of Israel’s economy and the millions of dollars of assistance to it. This sympathy with Israel shows Kennedy’s imperialist policy.”

The “Egyptian Home Service,” in an Arabic broadcast to the Arab world, also denounced Mr. Kennedy for aiding Israel and “paving the way for it to carry out new aggressions.” The broadcast said: “The United States, which is now defying the Arabs by extending aid to Israel, thus earning the enmity, wrath and hatred of the Arabs with this open support of an enemy which harbors nothing but evil against them, will one day reap the fruits of what it sows.”